The Survivors of the Chancellor Read Online Free PDF Page B

and studding-sails, the Chancellor during
the last four-and-twenty hours has held a steady course. M.
Letourneur is the only one of all the passengers who has remarked the change of tack; Curtis, however, has set all
speculation on his part at rest by telling him that he wanted
to get ahead of the wind, and that he was tacking to the west
to catch a favorable current.
    To-day, the 21st, all has gone on as usual; and as far as
the observation of the passengers has reached, the ordinary
routine has been undisturbed. Curtis indulges the hope
even yet that by excluding the air the fire may be stifled before it ignites the general cargo; he has hermetically closed
every accessible aperture, and has even taken the precaution
of plugging the orifices of the pumps, under the impression
that their suction-tubes, running as they do to the bottom of
the hold, may possibly be channels for conveying some
molecules of air. Altogether, he considers it a good sign
that the combustion has not betrayed itself by some external
issue of smoke.
    The day would have passed without any incident worth
recording, if I had not chanced to overhear a fragment of
a conversation which demonstrated that our situation,
hitherto precarious enough, had now become most appalling.
    As I was sitting on the poop, two of my fellow-passengers,
Falsten, the engineer, and Ruby, the merchant, whom I had
observed to be often in company, were engaged in conversation almost close to me. What they said was evidently not
intended for my hearing, but my attention was directed toward them by some very emphatic gestures of dissatisfaction
on the part of Falsten, and I could not forbear listening to
what followed.
    "Preposterous! shameful!" exclaimed Falsten; "nothing
could be more imprudent."
    "Pooh! pooh!" replied Ruby, "it's all right; it is not the
first time I have done it."
    "But don't you know that any shock at any time might
cause an explosion?"
    "Oh, it's all properly secured," said Ruby, "tight enough;
I have no fears on that score, Mr. Falsten."
    "But why," asked Falsten, "did you not inform the captain?"
    "Just because if I had informed him, he would not have
taken the case on board."
    The wind dropped for a few seconds; and for a brief interval I could not catch what passed; but I could see that
Falsten continued to remonstrate, while Ruby answered by
shrugging his shoulders. At length I heard Falsten say.
    "Well, at any rate, the captain must be informed of this,
and the package shall be thrown overboard. I don't want
to be blown up."
    I started. To what could the engineer be alluding? Evidently he had not the remotest suspicion that the cargo was
already on fire. In another moment the words "picrate of
potash" brought me to my feet, and with an involuntary
impulse I rushed up to Ruby, and seized him by the shoulder.
    "Is there picrate of potash on board?" I almost shrieked.
    "Yes," said Falsten, "a case containing thirty pounds."
    "Where is it?" I cried.
    "Down in the hold, with the cargo."

Chapter XI - The Passengers Discover Their Danger
*
    WHAT my feelings were I cannot describe; but it was
hardly in terror so much as with a kind of resignation that
I made my way to Curtis on the forecastle, and made him
aware that the alarming character of our situation was now
complete, as there was enough explosive matter on board to
blow up a mountain. Curtis received the information as
coolly as it was delivered, and after I had made him acquainted with all the particulars said, "Not a word of this
must be mentioned to anyone else, Mr. Kazallon. Where is
Ruby, now?"
    "On the poop," I said.
    "Will you then come with me, sir?"
    Ruby and Falsten were sitting just as I had left them.
Curtis walked straight up to Ruby, and asked him whether
what he had been told was true.
    "Yes, quite true," said Ruby, complacently, thinking that
the worst that could befall him would be that he might be
convicted of a little smuggling.
    I observed that Curtis was obliged for a moment or two
to